Gaian Alchemy Retreat Programme

The goal of Gaian Alchemy is the completion of the Great Work, as explained in an earlier post: Regeneration; orientation to Gaian Alchemy. There is no completion date, of course, but we are in the completion timeframe and the conditions are damn near perfect. The ancient alchemists had to generate the state of chaos needed to make matter mutable, but those conditions are now generously provided, saving us valuable energy. The framework, tools and clues are in place and now it is just a matter of application and dedication to the pleasures of discovery.

Stages and Phases

The Gaian Alchemy Retreats will address two core themes, Regeneration and Time by following the three main stages to the alchemical process. We don’t know how many stages the original alchemists used in their experiments, it could have been four in some cases, seven in others, but I’m following the model described by John Lash in the Course in Gaian Alchemy that he taught in the 80s and working with three. These are:

Formation and Fixation

Coniunctio

Magnificatio

With regard to phasing: the two Gaian Alchemy Retreats this year will concentrate on Formation and Fixation within the context of Regeneration. I’m planning for next year’s retreats to address Formation and Fixation with regard to Time. After that, those strands will come together, as appropriate, for the Coniunctio followed by (trumpet fanfare, if you will) the Magnificatio, “The expansion of consciousness to encompass the realm of Mythical Beings and the expansion of the senses.” JLL. I’m anticipating that the work will grow organically, like mycelium, with fruits in different locations and I’d like to see new ways of working together emerge. I’ve had to create some sort of structure, so I can envisage how the Work might progress, but I’m not intending to teach Gaian Alchemy as a set course – it’s much more about setting people up to take the work forward in their own way and supporting the Work as best we can.

Formation and Fixation

The Formation and Fixation stage could be described as the process of recovering the memories of where your senses originated and how to use them correctly. We don’t use our senses correctly, for the most part, because the theatre of human experience has been constructed to put the human at the centre of any experience, but not in any interactive relationship with anything else! For example, you might look at a tree or the stars, but there is no ordinarily accepted recognition of the fact that the tree and the stars are also interacting with you via that look. The observer effect acknowledges that observing an object, situation or phenomenon necessarily changes it, but it does not consider the possibility that the observer is also effected by the interaction. This two-way effect is not imaginary, even though it might not be measurable by instruments. There are biochemical and electromagnetic exchanges that occur between all living things, including the earth and cosmos, that the alchemists knew by other names and portrayed in their illustrations. The modern human is no longer able to use his/her senses to this degree of subtlety, however, we can choose to recover our senses.

The process of Formation and Fixation enables you to experience how you are located within the atmospheric membrane of the earth and how your senses were designed for interaction with all other forms of life on the planet and the plenary sovereign intelligence of the planet itself. The format of learning in the retreats will be some formal group teaching and discussion, followed by experiential exercises and one-on-one coaching sessions, for individual goal setting and support. There will also be a group task/project involving direct sensory and imaginative interaction with the land. The structure is intended to support ‘playful learning’, in a relaxed way that accommodates individual drives, talents and expectations (including my own) as much as possible.

The topics to be covered will include:

the three dimensions of space (enclosing space, surface space and enclosed space)

human identity and the Fallen Goddess Scenario as the guiding narrative

the human effect, intention, reason and desire

the process of recognition

kundalini and the grounding mechanism

DNA, biophotons and the challenges of time and light

I’m anticipating that what you’ll learn here will enable you to begin the process of regeneration, because this has been my experience. The ‘remembering’ of how to use your senses correctly and interactively with nature, within a guiding narrative that explains both earth and human origins AND is open-ended, makes if possible to use your imagination/consciousness fully, without falling into the trap of the ‘fantastic imagination’. The fantastic or fantasy imagination could be described as that which does not align with the dreaming of the earth. My experience is: fix the senses and the imagination follows.